Could Kinect hack be a Microsoft goldmine?
Open Source:- Only days after officially going on sale, Microsoft’s Kinect motion-capture controller was hacked.
Open source drivers are now out there for Linux, thanks to Hector Martin.
Adafruit made it interesting and now “WE HAVE A WINNER – Open Kinect driver(s) released – Winner will use $3k for more hacking – PLUS an additional $2k goes to the EFF!” – it says.
Earlier in the month, “Hi from team Adafruit, we’re going to do our first ever ‘X prize’ type project. Hack the Kinect for Xbox 360 and claim the $2,000 bounty! NOW $3,000.”
“Kinect for Xbox 360, or simply Kinect (originally known by the code name Project Natal (pronounced /nəˈtɒl/ nə-tahl)), is a ‘controller-free gaming and entertainment experience’ by Microsoft for the Xbox 360 video game platform, and may later be supported by PCs via Windows 8″, says the item, going on >>>
Based around a webcam-style add-on peripheral for the Xbox 360 console, it enables users to control and interact with the Xbox 360 without the need to touch a game controller through a natural user interface using gestures, spoken commands, or presented objects and images.
The project is aimed at broadening the Xbox 360’s audience beyond its typical gamer base.
It will compete with the Wii Remote with Wii MotionPlus and PlayStation Move motion control systems for the Wii and PlayStation 3 home consoles, respectively.
“Microsoft’s first statement on the success of Adafruit’s contest was filled with dark foreboding, promising the company would ‘work closely with law enforcement and product safety groups to keep Kinect tamper-resistant’,” writes Dana Blankenhorn on ZDNet, going on:
“A later clarification said OpenKinect was not a hack, but that the new code is not supported and people should use the Kinect as intended, only with the XBox.
“There are two reasons for the possible back-down: 1, Microsoft lawyers recognized it has no legal case against Martin, who made no changes to the hardware. 2, Microsoft marketers realized that the drivers might, in the end, be a gold mine for Microsoft.”
Meanwhile, “We have verified that it works and have a screenshot from another [above right] member in the hacking community (thanks qdot!) who was also able to use the code”, says Adafruit, going on, “Congrats to Hector! He’s running all this on a Linux laptop (his code works with OpenGL) and doesn’t even have an Xbox!
“Hector has decided to invest this bounty into hacking tools and devices for a group of people he works with closely (e.g. iPhone Dev Team members, Wii hacker team Team Twiizers, and a few others). They don’t have much expendable income to buy tools and devices to hack, and sometimes this hobby can be a bit expensive, this will be a good investment that will allow them to hack more and newer devices.”
What’s next?
“If you’d like to keep hacking there is a Google Group called ‘OpenKinect Google Group‘ – 100+ people and we’ve published our data dumps, our hello world motor code and now there is code/drivers from Hector (marcan)”, says the article, adding:
“We know this subsidized / commodity hardware can now be used for robotics, art, science, education and more. For $150 it’s loaded with tons of great sensors and cameras – now it’s unlocked for creativity.
“We expect to see a Chumby hacker board and/or BeagleBoard using a Kinect for it’s vision-system robot soon! Who knows FIRST robotics might use these for their next robotic competition.”
Stay tuned.
Adafruit – We have a winner!, November 10, 2010
team Adafruit – What is Kinect?, November 4, 2010
ZDNet – Microsoft surrenders on Linux Kinect hack, November 12, 2010
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi
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November 14th, 2010 at 3:10 pm
Cool, I would love to hook this up to my PC and use hand gestures for games and browsing!